TELEVISION COMMERCIALS FORunhealthy foods should be banned before 9pm to help tackle childhood obesity, health experts said.

Urgent action is needed to stop children being targeted by makers of foods high in fat, salt and sugar, a British Medical Association summit was told.

The matter was referred to the BMA’s public health committee amid calls for a ban on junk food ads before the watershed, and a total ban on such adverts on children’s TV.

Committee chairman Dr Peter Tiplady said: ‘Children are being bombarded with adverts for products that are extremely bad for their health.

‘Food manufacturers are deliberately targeting them by using sports personalities to send out the message that junk food and fizzy drinks will make them more popular.’

His deputy, Dr Steve Watkins, added: ‘It is utterly and fundamentally wrong that the food industry should assume the right, for their own commercial purposes, to persuade people to harm themselves. This is especially true of children.

‘It is important that we confine the advertisement of most processed foods to a time when they will not be promoted directly to children.’

Dr Kailash Agrawal, who chaired the conference, added: ‘Childhood obesity is a public health timebomb.

‘If the Government ignores it we will see huge increases in diabetes, strokes, cancer and heart disease.